The Last Jedi (2017)

Anticipation is always high for any Star Wars movie and The
Last Jedi wasn’t going to be the exception. People just can’t wait for that
Star Wars logo to flash on the screen while John William’s legendary score
blasts through the speakers, it just starts things out with such a blast! Of
course, I was as excited as everybody else. Where the hell was Rey and Finn’s
story going to go? Who’s going to go bad, who’s going to “turn”? The
interesting thing about this particular Star Wars sequel was that directors
were going to change. J.J. Abrams passed the baton to Ryan Johnson who took the
reins of the series with relentlessness. I wasn’t floored when I heard that Johnson
had gotten the gig because to be honest, I’m not a huge fan of Brick (2005) or
The Brothers Bloom (2008). The only light at the end of his cinematic
repertoire was a film called Looper (2012) which I did enjoy a whole lot. So, where
would a new voice, a new director/writer take the series? I was extremely
curious.

This time around, the rebels are escaping the ever-nearing
death grip of The New Order. After the destruction of Star Killer Base, the
Order is desperate to wipe out the last remaining members of the Rebel Alliance.
But rebels are not so easy to kill. Meanwhile, Rey is trying to convince Luke
to rejoin the fight, to lead, to train more Jedi. Sadly, Luke has all but given
up on the force and the training of Jedi. He wants none of the responsibility.
Will Rey convince him to come out of seclusion?

When I say that Johnson took the franchise relentlessly, I
mean it. It feels as if its writer/director, Ryan Johnson is scrapping
everything J.J. Abrams set up in The Force Awakens (2015) and doing his own
thing. And by scrapping, I mean, completely obliterating a lot of what makes The
Force Awakens what it is. So creatively speaking, that was so interesting. The
Last Jedi is the polar opposite of what The Force Awakens was. If Force Awakens
was giving fans everything they wanted, then The Last Jedi is defying what you
expected from this sequel. It’s almost as if Johnson is saying, if we follow
what Abrams set up, we’ll end up seeing the exact same films we’ve already
seen. And Johnson obviously doesn’t want that, so he’s shaking things up almost
to the point of starting anew. And I must admit, I dug this direction Johnson took a
whole lot. With this movie, you’ll feel like no one is safe. It’s not like when
you’re watching a movie and you know nothing is going to happen to the good
guys, so let’s just enjoy how they go about doing what they got to do. Nope, in
The Last Jedi you will feel like every single person on the screen is in danger
of being obliterated, or killed or blasted into infinity by some freaking giant
laser. In that sense, for me, the film succeeds. It takes away that feeling of
safety towards the characters.

The film succeeds in many other ways as well. It is a darker
chapter in the franchise and in this way it is similar to The Empire Strikes
Back (1980), but it’s not as blatant as The Force Awakens was with its fan
service. This isn’t a Xerox copy of The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi,
though we hear and see echoes of both films. So it gives you a bit of that
familiarity, but without becoming fan service, which was what The Force Awakens
was guilty of. The Last Jedi has many new things going for it, old fans will be
thrilled at how well they go about explaining exactly what The Force is but
will also be surprised at the additions that Johnson makes to the mythology.

Thematically speaking the film is all about the new wanting
to stamp out the old, trying to forget it, leave it behind to start anew, which
is kind of what the entire film attempts to do as well. I thought it was
amazing how the film was mimicking what its characters were feeling. I loved
where the characters were going and was surprised at every characters story arc
and ultimate fate. I mean, Rey and Kilo, awesome! Snoke! Leia! Finn! Poe! So
cool to see them all going through their own intense thing and then coming
together in the grand finale. With each passing movie I love Rey even more. The new characters like Rose and Benicio del Toro’s
DJ were welcome additions. I was especially proud of Benicio’s performance
because he is one of Puerto Rico’s best actors, and he's up there in Star Wars
and he represents. So, cool for Benicio!

The film is like a
long trip you don’t want to end. When I thought it was just about to be over,
boom, it wasn’t and a whole other chapter opens, and it’s also awesome. Final
thoughts on The Last Jedi is that yes, it’s a very satisfying sequel. It is a dark
chapter that shakes things up like crazy and attempts to put our characters in
an incredibly difficult situation, therefore it is going to polarize audiences.
Some will love it, others will hate it, or perhaps even find it “boring”,
though honestly, I can’t agree one parsec with them. I kept thinking, boy,
whoever ends up directing the next one is going to have a hard time doing it
because this Ryan Johnson guy just left things in pretty dire straits! Ryan
Johnson was like a hurricane that just passed through the Star Wars universe
and left said universe in tatters. Where are these characters headed now? That’s
what I want to know! We have to wait a couple of years to find out, so patience
my young Padawan’s. Patience.